Truck and coupler apparatus



July 7, 1970 P. A. ZAMARRA 3,518,790

TRUCK AND COUPLER APPARATUS Filed March 18, 1968 INVENTOR. Paw A.Zamarra BY ATTORNEY United States Patent Ofiice 3,518,790 Patented July7, 1970 3,518,790 TRUCK AND COUPLER APPARATUS Paul A. Zamarra, LakeRoad, Far Hills, NJ. 07931 Filed Mar. 18, 1968, Ser. No. 713,652 Int.Cl. A63h 19/00 US. Cl. 46-216 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Theinvention provides a one-piece car-truck and coupler apparatus as usedin railway equipment and has application to toy or model railroadapparatus but is not limited thereto.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to the field of railwayequipment, and in particular to the car-truck and coupler apparatus usedon railway equipment. The invention arose in the art of model or toyrailway apparatus.

Prior art car-truck and coupler arrangements are made up of severalparts or pieces which are expensive to manufacture and which involvetime and expense to assemble. In addition to the above, the multi-pieceapparatus of the prior art causes frustrations for the model railroadbuilder due to the handling of a plurality of small pieces. Inparticular the prior art devices included small springs to provideresilient coupling members.

The present invention provides a one-piece construction which is easy tohandle and inexpensive to manufacture.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In brief, the invention provides a one-piececar-truck and coupler for railway apparatus in which the car-truck andcoupler are connected by a flexible web. The coupler portion includes ahook having two horizontal beveled portions which meet at a protrudingedge so that when two similar couplers abut they flex so one rides overthe other far enough that they flex back to their normal horizontalposition engaged. The resilient web allows the hook to flex out of itsnormal horizontal position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top view of the one-piececar-truck and coupler of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the one-piece car-truck and coupler of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is an end view from the coupler portion hook.

FIG. 4 is an end view from the car-truck portion.

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the car-truck and coupler.

FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional side view of the apparatus of theinvention as seen from lines 66 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a partial cross-sectional view as seen from lines 7-7 of FIG.1.

FIG. 8 is a side view of two coupler hooks illustrating the flexingaction as the beveled portions ride on each other to accomplish thecoupling action.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIGS. 1-8 whichare hereby made a part of the specification, a one-piece railwaycar-truck and coupler 2 is provided in which a car-truck portion 4 and acoupler portion 6 are joined by resilient web members 8 which arehorizontally spaced apart in a common plane and are flexible alongimaginary lines between said truck portion and said coupler portion andtransverse of the path of travel of the truck. The wheels 10 are mountedonto the car-truck and coupler 2 but do not form part of the one-piececonstruction of the invention.

The coupler portion 6 includes a hook piece 12 and beveled surfaces 14and 16 which meet at the protruding edge 18. As illustrated in FIG. 8,when two similar cartruck and couplers 2 abut, the protruding edges 18meet and deflect the hook and coupler members 6 and 12. Further movementof the couplers toward each other causes the resilient webs 8 to flex sothat the beveled surfaces 14 and 16 ride or slide over each other to theposition shown in the broken line of FIG. 1 where the two coupler hooks12 engage. In this position the resilient webs 8 allow the couplers 6 toflex back to their normal horizontal positions.

Stop members 20, 22, 24- and 26 are provided to limit the extent of flexby the resilient web members 8. At one limit position of flex, the stopmembers 20 and 22 abut while at the other limit position stop members 24and 26 abut.

In the preferred embodiment the one-piece car-truck and coupler ismolded of plastic material with the web portions 8 being relatively thinto provide their resilient characteristic.

It should be noted that the webs 8 could be formed as one web ratherthan the two shown.

Although the preferred embodiment is directed to a toy or model railroadone-piece car-truck and coupler, the invention is intended to encompassfull scale railroad equipment as well.

It should be understood that this invention is not limited to specificdetails of construction and arrangement thereof herein illustrated, andthat changes and modifications may occur to one skilled in the artwithout departing from the spirit of the invention; the scope of theinvention being set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. Railway truck and coupler means comprising truck and couplerapparatus of single-piece construction, the coupler portion having apart in opposed horizontally spaced relation to a part of the truckportion, said parts being connected by at least one horizontal webportion which is resiliently flexible along imaginary horizontal linestransverse of the path of travel of said truck be-- tween said parts ofthe coupler portion and the truck portion, said coupler portion having ahook and flexing or said web providing for vertical movement of saidhook to couple and uncouple the hook to and from a hook off a similartruck and coupler apparatus.

2. Railway truck and coupler means as defined in claim 1 wherein thereare two webs horizontally spaced apart in a common horizontal plane andresiliently flexible along a common imaginary horizontal line betweensaid parts of the coupler portion and the truck portion and transverseof the path of travel of the truck.

3. Railway truck and coupler means as defined in claim 2; wherein saidhook has a beveled surface to cause the hook to move vertically whenbutted against said hook of a similar truck and coupler apparatus toallow the two hooks to pass each other and become coupled as they moveback to their normal positions.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,140,783 7/ 1964 Kretzmer et al.3,140,784 7/1964 Goldbeck et al. 3,450,272 6/1969 Munzing 46-2l8 X F.BARRY SHAY, Primary Examiner E. KRAUSE, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R.213-

